China’s President Xi Jinping will not be attending the G20 summit this weekend, marking the first time a Chinese leader has been absent from the event since its inception in 2008. Instead, Premier Li Qiang will lead the Chinese delegation. While US President Joe Biden expressed hope that Xi would attend the summit in Delhi, reports suggest that the chances of a meeting between the two leaders are slim. Analysts speculate that Xi’s absence could be a snub to the host country, India, with whom China has ongoing border disputes. It could also be seen as part of China’s effort to elevate other multilateral groups that are not regarded as US-dominated.
Xi’s recent participation at the Brics summit in South Africa, which he is positioning as an alternative to the G20 and G7, further supports this speculation. China’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Mao Ning, confirmed that Li would lead the delegation without disputing reports of Xi’s absence. The simultaneous absence of China’s top two leaders from the same event is highly unlikely. Wen-ti Sung, a China expert and political scientist, suggests that Xi’s decision might align with his narrative of “east is rising, and the west is falling.”
There are also several other possible reasons for Xi’s absence. Sung speculates that it could be a strategy to avoid meeting Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida amid tensions over Japan’s release of Fukushima wastewater. It might also be an act of solidarity with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is also skipping the G20 and is subject to an international criminal court arrest warrant.
Xi and Biden, who are working to improve relations between their two countries, last met in person at the G20 in Indonesia in November. While Biden will be represented by Vice President Kamala Harris at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Indonesia this week, he will travel to Vietnam after the G20. China and the US are engaged in a battle for influence in the Indo-Pacific region, but neither leader is attending the Asean summit.
Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, suggests that Xi’s priorities lie in national security and maintaining foreign leaders’ visits to China, rather than attending international summits. However, if Xi were to skip the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in San Francisco, it would reflect poorly on China’s international standing and its need for foreign investment.
Other G20 leaders expected to attend include German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron.